<p>With many students starting college, can anyone post about welcome week activities? What kind of activities were offered, did your child find a good match of activities, and was there plenty to do?</p>
<p>We moved my S in at Marshall University yesterday. They had a picnic dinner and movie last night, and start with a freshman convocation today at 9 a.m. They have information sessions today and Friday, with activities like The Ultimate Icebreaker in the evenings. Saturday, they have RecFest at the new Recreation Center and hourly bus runs to Target. I just hope he stays busy and doesn’t get homesick!</p>
<p>XU welcome week is packed full of activities and free food from 10am-9pm most days. =) I love it.</p>
<p>Despite the well planned list of evening activities at D’s university, she has managed to spend every night this week at frat parties, according to her little brother (she hasn’t communicated with mom and dad!) At least I know she’s having fun!</p>
<p>Here’s a link to my university’s welcome week activities:</p>
<p>[UA</a> Wildcat Welcome | August 18-29, 2010](<a href=“http://union.arizona.edu/welcome/events.php]UA”>http://union.arizona.edu/welcome/events.php)</p>
<p>For the most part, it’s student groups hosting events, vendor fairs, club involvement fairs, job fairs, free food, free entertainment, and an introduction to things students may find helpful (like the tutoring center). </p>
<p>This is my sophomore year, and I’ll be volunteering at all of the LGBTQ and diversity events listed (since I work with the club hosting them). I absolutely LOVED last year’s welcome events, which is saying something since I can’t stand big crowds and have no interest in sports, which our school is pretty big on. There was almost always something to do between classes, and I met a lot of people who I’m still very close friends with.</p>
<p>S University had campus tours specifically designed for ‘your’ classes, campus wide ‘Capture the Flag’, Midnight BBQ, summer reading discussion groups, movie, progressive ice cream and/or nacho parties for the FIGS, poster sale, free cotton candy at the book store, etc. He had a huge list, this is just what I can remember.</p>
<p>Last year our events got cancelled due to H1N1…stupid piggy flu. =(</p>
<p>But this year will be pretty awesome. =) Similar to what Atomic and Checkers said. [Xavier</a> University - Student Involvement - Week of Welcome](<a href=“http://www.xavier.edu/student-involvement/campus-clubs/Week-of-Welcome.cfm]Xavier”>http://www.xavier.edu/student-involvement/campus-clubs/Week-of-Welcome.cfm)</p>
<p>My school (University of Maryland, College Park), only had a freshmen weekend. There were a lot of choices for activities that no one attended after their first night on campus.
We even left the “mandatory” freshman welcome to go get McDonald’s.
But what we had that I remember:
Three free movies, showing constantly.
Tours from older students to find your classes.
A few boring “welcome” ceremonies.
Saftey fair…Don’t know what it was. Didn’t go. Just remember it for some reason.
Our freshman bonding occurred with avoiding our RA together to keep from going to another activity where we were going to be bored and/or infantilized.</p>
<p>Aw we had safety fair in our orientation weekend. It was fun. =)</p>
<p>We also had a dance, and took a trip off campus, and spent a lot of times in small groups. But we’re different than most schools, I think…we have a four-day orientation for freshmen then week of welcome for the entire following week.</p>
<p>Besides all the standard activities between move-in and the first day of classes, D is really looking forward to free comedy on the green by Daniel Tosh on move-in night at the University of Delaware (I had to google him - he’s on Comedy Central - Tosh.O).</p>
<p>Barnard/Columbia have a ten day extravaganza of going all over NYC. Faux cocktail parties, swing parties, visits to Ellis Island, neighborhood walking tours, all funded and all in different parts of the city. The goal is to have each kid comfortable with public transit in the city so the city feels like home. It’s a great, if exhausting, program.</p>
<p>Williams has a wilderness trip.</p>
<p>Scavenger hunts, a day of service in the city, square dance. Convocation. Small group meetings. Summer reading meeting. Performances/improvs featuring campus safety and other adjustment issues. Games and wall climbing. All school picnic and mass.
Also lots of parties in the surrounding student neighborhood.</p>
<p>square dance??? really?? What century are we in?</p>
<p>I love square dancing! Wish I was there.</p>
<p>Ds’s school is having a hypnotist.</p>
<p>It’s a campus tradition and supposedly a lot of fun. Attendance is not mandatory.</p>
<p>This all sounds like lots of fun and I don’t want to be of the “we walked uphill in the snow both ways and we liked it” mindset - but when I think back to our generation’s welcome activities (one dance / mixer – does THAT sound old or what?) and maybe some pizza in the dorms – I wonder how much these activities cost per student? I don’t begrudge it at all, but I’m just curious.</p>
<p>Alright, alright, Pizzagirl. We’ll get off your lawn.</p>
<p>;) j/k</p>
<p>It is quite amazing…I think I had a welcome barbecue. S2’s college, barbecue on the quad, s’mores at the fire pit, the town throws a party on Friday downtown with bands, various one day free outdoor activities (kayaking, hiking, etc.), outdoor movie night with popcorn, scavenger events… it comes down to 7 days of all kinds of activities. Amazing.</p>
<p>My son just started at Rice University and they take a lot of pride in starting the students off with an amazing week. Freshman come a full week early and spend time with their academic and peer advisors, take placement exams, etc.</p>
<p>Here are some links:</p>
<p>[2010</a> Rice O-Week Photos](<a href=“http://www.rice.edu/oweekgallery/]2010”>http://www.rice.edu/oweekgallery/)</p>
<p>[Rice</a> University O-Week: Undergraduates](<a href=“http://oweek.rice.edu/undergrad.cfm?doc_id=10935]Rice”>http://oweek.rice.edu/undergrad.cfm?doc_id=10935)</p>
<p>But actually the schedule is better than it seems above. For instance they went to an Astros game this evening and they’re going to the beach at Galveston tomorrow. They’ve gone to a comedy club and will end the week with a night out in Houston. On Sunday night they had Matriculation, a ceremony which ends with a fireworks display. One night they are awakened at 2:30 for an obstacle course race around campus. Rice has a college system - eleven residential colleges - kind of like Hogwarts, Harvard and Yale and the expectation is that by the end of the week you’ll have had at least a few moments to meet every other freshman in your college.</p>
<p>It began on Sunday @ 9 AM when a pack of upperclassman volunteers came streaming out of our son’s residential college and descended on the cars waiting in the parking lot, and carried all the belongings to the students’ rooms. As each student entered s/he was greeted by name, because the volunteers had memorized their names along with their photos. The volunteers had made personalized buttons (like political buttons) for each student with the students’ name and relevant imagery.</p>
<p>They’ve arranged for voter registration, group discussions about social life, problems that may arise, etc. The week is a great combination of fun, preparing for the semester ahead and learning about the campus and the city.</p>
<p>We had a square dance, but not during welcome week…it was on an optional Freshman-only retreat in September. =)</p>